I picked up a used Denon DVD-2910 for $50, which appears to be in excellent condition.

However, I'm having a strange problem, and have been unable to resolve it:

The player can play DVD-Audio over HDMI in all resolutions and all channel configurations (multi-channel and stereo); DVDs with Dolby Digital and DTS also work fine over HDMI.

However, when I try and use the 5.1 analog connections, playback is limited to two channel (L/R). The display clearly reads multi-channel (i.e. all the boxes are lit on the RHS) and the SACD selector is set to "multi-channel" but I only get playback on L/R. This happens whether the "downmix" light is lit or not, for either DVD-Audio or SACD.

Also, don't know if it's related, but I appear to be locked out of the Audio menu selections: on the Setup/ Audio menu, my only highlighted choices are "Compression on/off" and "SACD filter" - the rest of the selections are greyed out (Audio Channel/ Digital Output/ LPCM/ Source Direct/ Bass Enhancer) and I cannot change them.

Any insights from experienced users would be great - I bought the DVD-2910 to play multichannel DVD-Audio and SACDs, and right now I can't figure out how to make it work over the analog connections, which is the only way to hear SACD multi-channel. Thanks!

I picked up a used Denon DVD-2910 for $50, which appears to be in excellent condition.

However, I'm having a strange problem, and have been unable to resolve it:

The player can play DVD-Audio over HDMI in all resolutions and all channel configurations (multi-channel and stereo); DVDs with Dolby Digital and DTS also work fine over HDMI.

However, when I try and use the 5.1 analog connections, playback is limited to two channel (L/R). The display clearly reads multi-channel (i.e. all the boxes are lit on the RHS) and the SACD selector is set to "multi-channel" but I only get playback on L/R. This happens whether the "downmix" light is lit or not, for either DVD-Audio or SACD.

Also, don't know if it's related, but I appear to be locked out of the Audio menu selections: on the Setup/ Audio menu, my only highlighted choices are "Compression on/off" and "SACD filter" - the rest of the selections are greyed out (Audio Channel/ Digital Output/ LPCM/ Source Direct/ Bass Enhancer) and I cannot change them.

Any insights from experienced users would be great - I bought the DVD-2910 to play multichannel DVD-Audio and SACDs, and right now I can't figure out how to make it work over the analog connections, which is the only way to hear SACD multi-channel. Thanks!

FYI, I figured it out/answered my own question!
(of course, it wasn't really all me - I poured over scores of entries within this thread...)

So, the key is: the Denon DVD-2910 can do either high resolution multichannel via the HDMI, or via the analog outs, but not both at the same time.
(this is also cryptically described on p.16 of the manual)

For multichannel analog out (either DVD-Audio or SACD), you MUST set the HDMI Audio output to "2CH" - this activates both the Audio menu setup and enables analog multichannel. If you don't do this, you will only get L/R out of the analog 5.1 outputs.

For multichannel digital out via the HDMI (only DVD-audio mind you) you set the HDMI audio output to either "Multi Normal" or "Multi LPCM". The DVD-2910 won't do SACD multichannel via the HDMI, so if you're an SACD guy, you must configure the analog as per above.

I have both DVD-Audio and SACDs, so I either just leave it in analog mode, or switch back and forth if I want digital DVD-Audio. My receiver is the Panasonic SA-XR57, so it can handle 5.1 channels of direct digital 96khz, or two channel direct digital 192khz - so HDMI DVD-Audio works fine. I just think it's a poor decision to not allow SACD via HDMI (even if it meant converting to LPCM in order to do so) - it's simply inconvenient to have to switch back and forth.

Still, the DVD-2910 now works perfectly - best $50 electronics purchase, like, ever!

Hello, I have a 2910 for some time now, It recently stops playing CDs it plays only DVDs, but today I cannot play a PC burned DVD Dual Layer.
Can It be some configuration issue, or my 2910 is just dying ?
I will appreciate your comments.

Pardon resurrecting a zombie thread, but like those above I just snagged a 2910, actually the silver "955" model, for a cheap bedroom player and was curious about the firmware. I've dug up the ESS:6720-8 MR firmware still downloadable through the Internet Archive, but I can't find any others except the last European update from 2006 from Denon Europe (Ver8281/506). Would it be acceptable to update a US unit with this Euro firmware? I assume not, but just want to gauge if anyone has tried this. The "8" US firmware isn't the last, after it there was a 9, A, B, and D. However, the European FW appears to have been released a few months after "D".